By Gary Tim
Baton Rouge, LA – Guyana’s world-ranked track athlete Marian Burnett began her 2010 outdoor season with a strong performance as she clocked an impressive 2:01.58 while placing third in the highly anticipated Women’s 800m at the Louisiana State University (LSU) 2010 Alumni Gold championships on Saturday.
The time placed the perennial Guyanese champion at #3 in the world at the end of the fourth week of the season. The athlete is making a return to competitive meets after a lengthy lay-off due to injury. This marked the third time that Burnett recorded a ‘2:01 run’ at her alma mater’s prime meet, though this time not for the gold.
The mid-afternoon race in windless, 83°F conditions was a scintillating spectacle for fans at the Bernie Moore stadium as Burnett and her training partners coveted the top positions with the top-3 times in the world. Stable mates, Grenadian champion Neisha Bernard Thomas (2:00.77) and LSU senior Latavia Thomas (2:01.40) beat Burnett to the tape for a SB and a PB, respectively.
Trailing the medalists were LSU seniors Jamaican-born Kayann Thompson in 2:03.54 (SB) and Brittany Hall in 2:03.76 (SB). Trinidad’s national champion Melissa Deleon also got a season best at 2:03.81for sixth, while LSU freshman Charlene Lipsey followed in 2:05.89 (SB).
Thomas, Thompson, Hall and Lipsey are also ranked 1, 2, 3 and 6 on the US collegiate list – a source of pride for LSU’s assistant head coach Mark Elliott who trains all seven top placers. “It’s a long time I have seen coach so speechless,” Burnett said describing Elliott’s joy at the end of the race, “especially so that the track record was also broken”she added The 26-year-old stadium mark of 2:01.15 by the intrepid Joetta Clark was erased by Bernard Thomas’s clocking. Elsewhere, several other PB’s, SB’s and world leaders were registered, as well as 2-time world indoor champion Lolo Jones bettering her old stadium time in the Women’s 100m Hurdles – 12.71s to 12.72s (in 2008).
Later in the meet, Burnett was part of a literal ‘united nations of the Caribbean’ team that competed in the Women’s 4x400m relay as Tiger Olympians ‘A’. She teamed with Bernard-Thomas, Deleon and Jamaica’s 2003 World Indoor 4x400m silver medalist Sheryl Morgan to place second (3:32.80); marginally losing the gold to LSU ‘A’ (3:32.51).
Bernard-Thomas, Thomas and Burnett went much better than a ‘blow-out outing’ at the Miami Florida Hurricane Alumni Invitational in Coral Gables, a week before. There, they ended the 800m in the same order in 2:03.25, 2:05.11 and 2:05.32, respectively in heavily windy conditions.
After returning from a semi-final showing at last year’s IAAF World Championship in Berlin, Burnett’s training and contests were stymied by injuries and apposite courses of treatment. She was almost two months adrift of her regimen, and recently got the ‘green light’ to hit the tracks. The latest problem had affected the mobility of her arm following a mishap.
“I’ve been on serious treatment since and I saw a doctor the Thursday in Florida and got a lot of pre-race attention.” Burnett said “my arms and shoulders were locking up and I didn’t want to put pressure on it outside of what the treatment permitted.” Though with a cautious approach, she said she “felt good in the race and I ran the 4 by 4 and I did well. That translated to her being part of, what she termed, a “massive workout on Tuesday” before the Alumni Gold meet.
Burnett told Stabroek Sport that she is on a no holds barred pace to “catch up” going into the core of the season. The 2007 South American champion indicated that she is lining up some meets in the region to compliment her European sojourn later in the year. “I am looking to Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Brazil, and looking to get a 1500, too. I think I can bring my time (PB – 4:17.91) down,” said the national indoor and outdoor 800m, 1500m and, mile and 3000m record holder.
